The University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and Center for Rural Health propose a conference to contribute to improving long-term care for the rural elderly by providing a forum for sharing current research, exploring innovative options for enhancing the rural long-term care environment, assessing the implications of health care reform initiatives, and developing and disseminating an agenda and strategies for action. The conference will bring together participants with an interest in rural long-term care, including health services researchers, gerontologists, long-term care providers, health policy makers, and advocates for the elderly. Six nationally recognized researchers will be commissioned to prepare papers analyzing the challenges of providing rural long-term care, and the roles of rural hospitals, rural nursing homes, rural senior centers, rural home and community-based services, and the family. The papers will be peer-reviewed by a panel of policy- makers and providers, and presented on the first day of the conference. The second day will include presentations of innovative care models by providers of rural long-term care, and discussion of the implications of health care reform by state and federal health care policy makers. Working groups of conference attendees will participate in developing an agenda for research and an agenda for policy change and action. After the conference, the principal investigators will edit and compile the papers into a book, and complete the preparation of a white paper on issues in long-term care that will include a set of policy recommendations. The products of the conference will be disseminated to a wide audience of researchers, providers and policy makers.